Risers and fallers and final power rankings after Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway:

Risers

Brad Keselowski — There’s a long list of accomplished drivers who have tried to beat Jimmie Johnson for the Sprint Cup championship in the past seven years—Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Denny Hamlin. But none of them could knock off the five-time champ.

But Brad Keselowski did.

Three years ago, no one could have imagined that Keselowski would even be a championship contender at this stage of his career. But now, after beating Johnson by 40 points to win the 2012 Chase, Keselowski, 28, looks like he might be a perennial contender.

Jeff Gordon — A week ago, Gordon was the most maligned driver on the circuit, drawing a $100,000 fine and widespread criticism for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer at Phoenix. But Gordon handled himself well at Homestead. He apologized for the way he handled his run-in with Bowyer, while also standing his ground and not backing down from his stance that Bowyer had it coming.

Then he went out and won the season finale for his second win of the year and the 87th of his career. In the process, he moved up a spot in the final standings to 10th, ensuring that he and his team will be honored at the postseason awards banquet. While Gordon’s victory doesn’t erase the embarrassing incident at Phoenix, it did help ease a season of disappointment.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — Two years in a row, former Sprint Cup driver Elliott Sadler did everything he could to win a Nationwide Series championship with Richard Childress Racing. And two years in a row, he couldn’t beat Stenhouse, the Roush Fenway Racing star.

Stenhouse became just the sixth driver to win consecutive Nationwide championships. Now he will move to Sprint Cup, where he will try to become the next Brad Keselowski.

Fallers

Jimmie Johnson — Johnson had another outstanding season, winning five races and challenging for the championship right up to the very end. His third-place finish in points marked the eighth time in his career that he has finished in the top three and he’s finished outside the top five just once (last year).

But Johnson and his No. 48 team can’t be happy about the way this year ended. Johnson had a tire problem and crashed at Phoenix and had a critical pit-road mistake followed by a mechanical failure.

Both were uncharacteristic mistakes for the No. 48 team, particularly in the middle of a championship race. Johnson led the standings going into Phoenix, so it lost this championship as much as Keselowski won it.

Martin Truex Jr. — Truex made the Chase in his third season with Michael Waltrip Racing, but he failed to reach his main goal—winning a race for the first time since 2007.

Though he finished sixth in the season finale at Homestead, he slipped to 11th in the final standings when Gordon won the race and climbed to 10th. That means that Truex and his team will not participate in the season-ending awards banquet.

That and not winning marked a disappointing end to what was otherwise a fine season.

Tony Stewart — A year ago, Stewart re-emerged as the biggest star in the sport. His dramatic victory in the 2011 season finale and amazing championship run was one of the most impressive accomplishments in NASCAR history.

A year later, Stewart was a mere afterthought in the season finale and the Chase. Stewart didn’t win a race in the final 18 races of the season and had just four top-10 finishes in the Chase. He limped home 17th in the season finale and finished ninth in the final standings with six finishes of 13th or worse in his last eight races. Few drivers were looking forward to the season ended more than Stewart.